Signatures in Mail

A signature can automatically appear at the bottom of your email. It can be your name, your contact information, even a favorite quote. You can create several different signatures and choose which one you want for a particular email.

To create a signature:

1. First, create a new email message so you have a place to type

2. Type everything you want to appear, including choosing the font, size, color

3. Highlight it all

4. From the Edit menu, choose Copy

5. Then, under the Mail menu, choose Preferences

6. Click on the Signatures icon

7. Click the “+” sign at the bottom of the middle column to create a new signature

8. Title it in the middle column where it is highlighted in blue

9. In the right column, delete the text that appears there

10. From the Edit menu, choose Paste

Your typed text will appear.

To actually USE the signature, you have to now assign it to an email account.

1. Drag that named signature from the middle column to on top of the email address in the left column that you want to use it with.

2. Click on that email address and, at the bottom, under Choose Signature, decide whether you always want that signature to appear or, if you choose None, then you can select the signature when you want to use it in a particular email.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Signatures in Mail

By default, every email you send says “Sent from my iPhone or iPad.” You can remove this and even add your own signature. You can even have a different signature for each of your email accounts.

1. From the Home screen, tap on Settings

2. Scroll down and tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars

3. Scroll all the way down and tap Signature

4. Choose All Accounts if you want to use the same signature for all of your email accounts

5. Click Per Account if you want to create unique signatures for each email account

6. Delete the existing text and type what you’d like it to say

7. There is no need to Save it, just tap back to Mail and you’ll see that, next to Signature, it now shows either the text you typed or the number of how many email accounts you have

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Too Many Emails? Unsubscribe!

I have clients with more than 3000 emails in their inbox. Yes, this can slow things down. Yes, it makes it hard to find what’s important. But more than that, it often causes some anxiety.

People think the goal is to have a Zero inbox.

Really the goal is to only receive mail from people you want to hear from.

You can start by unsubscribing from all of the newsletters you receive and do not read. You can always get the information on their website. You can re-sign up if you find that you miss it.

Take 10 or 15 minutes a day and go through all of the subscription emails you receive. When’s the last time you actually READ them? Do you even resonate with the content? Unsubscribe from anything that you haven’t opened in the last six months. goes for stores, catalogs, magazines, newsletters.

In fact, unsubscribing from unwanted emails is much easier than canceling catalogs that get delivered to your house.

1. Open an email you no longer want to receive.

2. Scroll down to the bottom and look for a link to UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE SETTINGS. Follow the prompts to remove your name from their mailing list.

3. Then delete the email from your inbox.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Emoticons: Part 2

If you tried typing those fun characters and didn’t see the globe on the keyboard, my apologies. I forgot to tell you how to set it up:

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Keyboard
4. Tap Keyboards
5. Add a Keyboard
6. Choose Emoji
7. Close Settings

Now, anytime you want to type a fun character:

1. On the keyboard, tap the world globe icon to the left of the space bar
2. Choose the characters you want
3. Tap the globe again to return to your regular keyboard

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Scroll Bar Secrets

The scroll bar, on the right side of every window, allows you to move up and down the window to see the contents.

Dragging the scroll bar moves you fast, sometimes too fast. But Dragging the scroll button is the quickest way to go all the way to the top or bottom of a window.

Clicking the up and down arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar will move you a line at a time. This is great if you are reading a document line by line or looking at individual photos.

In the System Preferences, under Appearance, you can set the Scroll Bar to either jump to the next page or to the spot that’s clicked.

This is handy when you are scanning a document or wanting to quickly navigate through a section of your photos.

This is also where you can set to Always Show Scroll Bars, instead of having to hover the cursor to reveal them.

BONUS: In Safari, pressing the Space Bar scrolls the window down a screen at a time. Shift plus Space Bar scrolls the window up a screen at a time.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Quick Scroll to the Top

When you reach the bottom of an article, or an email or the news feed in FaceBook, instead of scrolling all the way back to the top:

Just double tap in the very top black horizontal menu space where the time and battery are displayed and you’ll zip right up to the top of the screen.

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Managing Passwords

With all of the user names and passwords that you have to remember, how do you keep track of them all?

I highly recommend that you keep a Master List, on paper, in a notebook and make sure it is updated regularly.

But this isn’t convenient for travelers or users of more than one device.

There are online services that will store your passwords for you BUT, who are they? How long will they be in business? How secure is their site?

Your Mac has always stored saved passwords in Keychain Access, an app found in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. To reveal a saved password, you just need to know the master password for the computer.

Mavericks and iOS7 now give you the option of storing all of your Passwords on Apple’s iCloud Keychain.

To activate the iCloud Keychain,

1. Open System Preferences
2. Click on iCloud
3. Check the box next to Keychains
4. You will be required to create a four-digit password
5. BE SURE TO WRITE THIS PASSWORD DOWN ON YOUR MASTER LIST!
6. Activate the Keychain on your iPad and iPhone also

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

iCloud Keychain

The new iOS7 allows you to save your passwords on Apple’s iCloud. To activate this feature,

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap iCloud
3. Tap Keychain
4. Follow the prompts to set up your password

Are You Missing Your Scroll Bars?

If you are using Mountain Lion, you may have noticed that your Scroll Bars have disappeared. In fact, the new default setting is to only show them when you are scrolling.

To change this, from the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, click on General and, next to Show scroll bars, chose Always.

Ahhhhhh…….

iPad Tip of the Week

Tall or Wide, How to Lock the Orientation

A helpful feature on the iPhone and iPad is that you can turn the device sideways to rotate the screen orientation. It’s a lot easier to read articles and emails in the sideways or landscape orientation. But it can also be annoying to have the screen randomly change orientation.

You can lock the orientation so that it no longer changes orientation.

On the iPhone:

Double-tap the Home button to reveal the line of open and active apps

Slide all the way to the LEFT until you see the iTunes icon and the play buttons. Also on this screen is the Rotation Lock icon

Tap it to lock the Portrait orientation so that the screen will no longer rotate to wide.

On the iPad:

Tap Settings

Tap General

Scroll down to the choice where you can use the side switch to Lock Rotation

Before you lock the switch, turn the iPad in the direction you want to use, either tall or wide, and then Lock the screen in position

NOTE: Even if you choose to lock in the wide/landscape orientation on the iPad, some apps may still open only in portrait.

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Seeing Only Certain Contacts on Your Phone

All of your contacts are stored in one place and are automatically synced with all of your devices. But many folks don’t want to SEE all of their contacts on their iPhone. They just want to see the people they call.

On your Mac:

1. Open Contacts and, from the File menu, choose New Group

2. Name it “phone” or something similar

3. Click on All Contacts in the left column

4. Find the people you want to see on your iPhone

5. Move them into the new “phone” group

You can select them one at a time and drag them on top of the group you just created or

Click on one name, hold down the Command key and select others.

Drag one person on top of the phone group and they will all go.

iPad Tip of the Week

To See Only The Contacts in the “Phone” Group You Created

1. Tap Contacts

2. In the top left, tap Groups

3. Right now, the groups that are checked are all showing in the Contacts list

4. Tap Hide All Contacts to remove all the check marks

5. Tap the “phone” group to choose ONLY those people

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Are You Missing Your Scroll Bars?

If you are using Mountain Lion, you may have noticed that your Scroll Bars have disappeared. In fact, the new default setting is to only show them when you are scrolling.

To change this, from the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, click on General and, next to Show scroll bars, chose Always.

Ahhhhhh…….

iPad Tip of the Week

Tall or Wide, How to Lock the Orientation

A helpful feature on the iPhone and iPad is that you can turn the device sideways to rotate the screen orientation. It’s a lot easier to read articles and emails in the sideways or landscape orientation. But it can also be annoying to have the screen randomly change orientation.

You can lock the orientation so that it no longer changes orientation.

On the iPhone:

1. Double-tap the Home button to reveal the line of open and active apps

2. Slide all the way to the LEFT until you see the iTunes icon and the play buttons. Also on this screen is the Rotation Lock icon

3. Tap it to lock the Portrait orientation so that the screen will no longer rotate to wide.

On the iPad:

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Scroll down to the choice where you can use the side switch to Lock Rotation

4. Before you lock the switch, turn the iPad in the direction you want to use, either tall or wide, and then Lock the screen in position

NOTE: Even if you choose to lock in the wide/landscape orientation on the iPad, some apps may still open only in portrait.

———–

Seeing Only Certain Contacts on Your Phone

1. Open Contacts and, from the File menu, choose New Group
2. Name it “phone” or something similar
3. Click on All Contacts in the left column
4. Find the people you want to see on your iPhone
5. Move them into the new “phone” group

iPad Tip of the Week

A Faster Way to Scroll in iCal

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Printing those Passwords

While you can’t print the password list directly, you can take a screen shot and then print that.

1. Resize the window so that you can see as many passwords as possible

2. Hold down the Command and Shift keys and type the number 4

3. The cursor will become a crosshair

4. Starting in any corner, drag to surround everything you want to print

5. Release the mouse and you’ll hear a sound like a camera shutter

6. Click on your Desktop to find the file named “Screenshot”

7. You may have to take several shots to get your complete list

8. To print these Screenshots, just double click to open, then choose Print from the File menu

iPad Tip of the Week

A Faster Way to Scroll in iCal

Instead of tapping the forward and back buttons to go to a different month:

Tap and HOLD on that arrow to navigate faster

Remember to tap Today to quickly return to the current month

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Website Passwords

I’m a big proponent of keeping a written list of all of your passwords in a notebook so that you always have access to them.

One of the new features in Safari stores all of your website passwords, in case you forget them.

1. Under the Safari menu, choose Preferences

2. Click on the Passwords icon

3. To reveal the actual passwords, click Show Passwords

4. You will need to type the password for the computer to gain access

You can remove any saved passwords or clear the entire list.

iPad Tip of the Week

Cleaning Out Storage Space

Believe it or not, iMessage and texts take up quiet a bit of storage space on your mobile devices.

This is particularly true if you send and receive a lot of multimedia messages with photos, animations, etc.

To clear out old Messages:

1. Open Messages app

2. Tap Edit

3. Tap the red (-) button to delete an entire message thread

4. Repeat as necessary

Changes in Gmail

If you access your Gmail via the web and not through Apple Mail, you’ve probably noticed a few changes.

Gmail has introduced a new feature called tabbed inbox that automatically filters your email into several different categories. Most newsletters and mass mailings will now be delivered to your “Promotions” tab instead of your inbox.

To change this:

1. Click on the “Promotions” tab

2. Find any emails that you don’t want to get lost in this pile of promotions and drag it to the “Primary” tab.

3. Be sure to click “Yes” when the alert pops up. Do this for any of the emails you want to see right away.

Or, if you prefer to remove this new Tabs feature:

1. Go to the “Settings” box in the upper right hand corner of your inbox and select “Settings.”

2. Click on “Configure Inbox,” unselect all of the categories except “Primary,” and then save your changes.

Thanks to Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo and Anna Garrett for the heads up on this!

iPad Tip of the Week

The Fastest Way to Open Any App

If you’re like most of my clients, you have quite a few apps on your iPhone and iPad. And to find the ones not readily available on the first page can take some scrolling and searching.

Here’s a shortcut:
Instead of scrolling, swipe in the opposite direction, to the RIGHT to reveal Spotlight, the built-in Search tool.
Type the name of the app you’re looking for and it will appear in a list.

If you don’t see it, you’ll have to adjust your Spotlight settings

Tap Settings
Tap General
About halfway down, tap Spotlight Search
Be sure there is a checkmark next to Applications

You might want to remove the check mark next to items that you don’t want to include in the search. This will also save on battery usage.

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Quick Scrolling in Safari

Instead of using your mouse’s scroll wheel or trackpad or dragging the blue scroll bar, you can move down the page by pressing the Space Bar.

Move up the page by holding down the Shift key and pressing the Space Bar.

iPad Tip of the Week

Quick Scrolling

When you reach the bottom of an article, or an email or the news feed in FaceBook, instead of scrolling all the way back to the top:

Just double tap in the very top black horizontal menu space where the time and battery are displayed and you’ll zip right up to the top of the screen.

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Setting Margins in Microsoft Word

Many of my clients have been using Microsoft Word for years, yet they admit they don’t know how to properly set margins.

It’s NOT by sliding the triangles on the ruler!

Click here for a free video lesson that will show you how easy it is to properly change your margins.

This tip is just one of the many things you can learn in Mac to School’s Virtual Classroom. To gain access to the entire course and all of the other great video lessons, join the classroom.

iPad Tip of the Week

Emailing Photos

One way to share pictures via email is from the Photos app:

1. Open the Photos app

2. Tap Camera Roll or Photo Library, depending on where the photos are

3. Tap Edit

4. Select the photos you want to email

5. Tap Share

6. Tap Mail

If Mail is not an option, you have too many photos selected. So cancel and unselect several photos then try again.

Another Option is to insert the photos directly from Mail

1. Create a new mail message

2. When you’re ready to insert a photo tap and hold in the message area

3. Choose Insert Photo or Video

4. Choose where the picture is (Camera Roll, Photo Library, an album, etc.)

5. Choose the photo

6. Tap USE

To send several photos at once, either repeat the above steps for each photo or use the first method from Photos.

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Sorting and Searching in Notes

I use the Notes app for all kinds of things: movies people recommend, restaurants I want to try, great ideas that come to me when I am out and about.

By default, the Notes are sorted by the date they are edited, which can mean a bit of searching for the Note I want.

From the View menu, you can change how notes are sorted: by Date Created, Dated Edited, or by Title, so you can choose what works best for you.

Or, use the Search feature to have Notes find it for you.
Just click in the box next to the magnifying glass at the top of the list of Notes and type what you’re looking for.

iPad Tip of the Week

Enjoying Photos

Family gatherings are a great time to share photos. And it’s fun to be able to have your photos displayed in the background.

When your iPad is asleep and locked, you can still view Photos using the Picture Frame mode. It’s different than the Slide Show mode when you are in your Photos.

To set your preferences for Picture Frame:

1. Click Settings

2. Click Picture Frame

3. Choose your Transition

4. Choose how long it shows each photo, whether to Zoom in on faces, and if you want them Shuffled, in a random order

5. Choose which photos and albums to show

6. Sit back and enjoy

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See What Fonts Look Like

You can change the fonts of text in Mail as well as most other Apple programs by highlighting the text and then clicking on the desired font from the Font pulldown menu. But you don’t know what the font will actually look like until you do it.

Another way to experiment with fonts in email is to choose Show Fonts from the Format menu.

The Fonts window shows a list of grouped fonts (Collections), the family of typefaces, the possible styles of each typeface and a size to choose.

To see what the font actually looks like, you can reveal the Font Preview Pane.

1. Click on the barely noticeable circle that is below the word “Fonts” and above the “T” tool. Your mouse becomes a tool with arrows.

2. Drag the tool down to reveal the Font Preview Pane.

You can make the entire window bigger by dragging on any corner of the window.

iPad Tip of the Week

Creating Groups

Unfortunately, there is no simple way to create Groups in the Contacts app on your iPad or iPhone. But there is a workaround:

Create the Group in the Contacts app on your Mac. Any changes made on the Mac will automatically sync via iCloud to your iPhone and iPad.

Comparing Pictures in iPhoto

You can compare two or more photos in iPhoto by clicking on one, holding down Command and clicking on the anothers.

Click Edit and they will appear side by side so you can decide which one is better.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Taking Pictures is Even easier

If you’ve ever wished your iPhone camera had a physical shutter button, look no further. The phone’s volume up (+) button doubles as a shutter button whenever the Camera app is opened. This hard button feels sturdier all around, plus it makes it a cinch to take self-portraits or to tell strangers how to take a photo of you and your friends.

You can also quickly access the camera even when your phone is locked.
From the locked Home Screen, slide up on the camera icon. It takes the right touch and the right slide, but once you master it, it’s the fast way to access your camera.

You can do this with anyone’s phone, regardless of whether or not you know their password because it only opens the Camera app, locking you out of all other apps-and other photos and videos-on the phone. Just the photos or videos you take at that moment will be visible to you.

————

Searching in Mail

If you’re like most of my clients, you have a lot of emails in your Inbox and it can be pretty tedious to scroll up and down, looking for a particular email.

In the top right corner there is a search box. Type in what you are looking for. (If you don’t see it, make your window wider.)

A list of suggestions will appear as you type.

On the left side of the window, just below the icons of the toolbar, you’ll also see that you can limit the search to a specific folder.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Taking a Picture of Your Screen

Sometimes you have something on your screen that you want to share with someone in an email.

Maybe it’s an odd message that appears, or your high score in Words With Friends.

To take a snapshot of your screen:

Press and HOLD the Home button and also press the Sleep/Wake button at the same time.

The screen will flash and you’ll hear a click, indicating that a photo has been taken.

Your screen shots are saved automatically in your Photos gallery where you can view and then email them.

————-

Using DropBox Like a Backpack

Many of my clients work between several devices, maybe a laptop and an iMac, an iPad, even on their iPhone and they ask me, “What’s the best way to have my documents available to work on, no matter where I am?”

While Apple will suggest you use iCloud, I think it’s much easier to use DropBox. DropBox is also a cloud-based storage space that you can access from any computer and mobile device, and it’s easier to use and access than iCloud.

Storing your working files on a cloud-based system is like carrying them in a backpack so they are wherever you are.

Download the free DropBox app onto your Mac and onto each of the devices you want to share your documents with.

Set up your free account (you get 20GB of storage for free) and sign in with the same account on each of your devices

Drag the files you want to share with yourself into DropBox.

Make sure you have an internet connection when you do this so that the current documents go up to the cloud for universal access.

Note: When you drag the document from your computer to Dropbox, they are now ONLY on DropBox. If you copy them, the version you leave on your computer will NOT be changed when you change the one on DropBox)

Then, open the files directly from your DropBox, make your changes and the changes will appear on all devices.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Faster Charging

Your iPhone and iPad will charge faster if you plug them directly into a wall outlet instead of your computer.

Be sure to drain the battery at least once a month to maximize performance.

—————

Scroll Bar Secrets

The scroll bar, on the right side of every window, allows you to move up and down the window to see the contents.

In the System Preferences, under General, you can set the Scroll Bar to either jump to the next page or to the spot that’s clicked.

This is handy when you are scanning a document or wanting to quickly navigate through a section of your photos.

If you don’t see your scroll bars all the time, this is where you can also choose to Always show them.

Dragging the scroll bar moves you fast, sometimes too fast. But dragging the scroll button is the quickest way to go all the way to the top or bottom of a window.

Clicking on the up and down arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar will move you a line at a time in that direction. This is great if you are reading a document line by line or looking at individual photos.

BONUS: In Safari, pressing the Space Bar scrolls the window a screen at a time.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Copy and Paste

Yes, of course you can copy and paste text on your iPad and iPhone.

1. Press and hold your finger at the beginning of the text you want to select. A menu appears, and the text is highlighted in light blue and there are blue circles on either end of the selection

2. Drag the blue circles to highlight all of the text you want to work with or choose Select All

3. Choose Copy

4. Press and hold your finger where you want to put the text you copied

5. Choose Paste

Editing Text

Use this same technique of pressing and holding your finger to reposition your cursor to Edit text

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Drafts in Mail with Mountain Lion

Lots of folks are asking where the Drafts Folder went in Mail after they installed Mountain Lion. It used to be that SAVE AS DRAFT was a choice. Now, just close the email you want to save and it will give you the option to Save As Draft.

Once you’ve saved something, the Drafts Folder will appear in the Mailbox list in the left column.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

A Week’s Worth of Weather

The weather widget in the Notification Center doesn’t just show you the weather for today. It can also show you the weather for the next five days.

Just swipe left or right for the full forecast.

Make Things Bigger on the Desktop

Did you know that you can make the text AND icons bigger on the Desktop?

1. From the Finder click the View menu

2. Choose Show View Options

3. You can drag the top slider to make the icons bigger or smaller

4. Change the text size

5. You can even reposition the label text from the bottom to the side

6. Click a check mark next to Show Icon Preview and you’ll see a thumbnail of all of your jpgs

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Four More Ways to Conserve Your Battery

Under Settings:

1. Turn off Bluetooth if you are not connected to a wireless keyboard or your car’s system

2. In General, under Spotlight search, limit where it should look when you use the search feature

3. Under the iPod setting, turn off the EQ

4. Under Location Services, wisely choose which Apps REALLY need to know where you are

—————-

Scroll Bar Secrets

The scroll bar, on the right side of every window, allows you to move up and down the window to see the contents.

Dragging the scroll bar moves you fast, sometimes too fast. But Dragging the scroll button is the quickest way to go all the way to the top or bottom of a window.

Clicking the up and down arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar will move you a line at a time. This is great if you are reading a document line by line or looking at individual photos.

In the System Preferences, under Appearance, you can set the Scroll Bar to either jump to the next page or to the spot that’s clicked.

This is handy when you are scanning a document or wanting to quickly navigate through a section of your photos.

BONUS: In Safari, pressing the Space Bar scrolls the window down a screen at a time. Shift plus Space Bar scrolls the window up a screen at a time.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Quick Scroll to the Top

When you reach the bottom of an article, or an email or the news feed in FaceBook, instead of scrolling all the way back to the top:

Just double tap in the very top black horizontal menu space where the time and battery are displayed and you’ll zip right up to the top of the screen.

—————

Changing the Direction of Deleting in Mail

I don’t know about you, but when I am deleting a series of emails in Mail, I like to delete from the bottom up. But it seems that the default deletes from the top down. What I mean is, if I delete something in the list, I want it to highlight the next email ABOVE the one I deleted.

You can choose which direction the deleting goes.

1. Delete an email

2. Notice if it now highlights the email above or below the one you deleted

3. Press the up or down arrow on the keyboard to choose the direction you want

4. Press delete to remove the next email and it will now be highlighting the next email in the direction you chose

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Conserve the Battery

One way to get more battery time on your iPhone and iPad is to change the setting for auto-adjusting the brightness.

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap Brightness and Wallpaper

3. Turn the Auto-Brightness setting OFF

4. Now it will stay the same brightness no matter what the ambient light conditions.

5. If you need the screen to be brighter or dimmer, come back to settings and make the change manually

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Keyboard Shortcuts

The Apple Wireless Keyboard is sleek, compact and feels great on your fingers. But it’s missing the numeric keypad and a few other keys that some people are lost without.

This week’s tip is a short (less than 2 minutes!) video lesson especially for all of you recently converted PC users who miss those special navigational keys.

Check out the video. Try the tip. Let me know what you think!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Quick Contacts Editing

If you need to quickly delete a person’s phone number or address from their contact information, you don’t need to tap Edit first.

Find their entry in your Contacts

Simply swipe your finger next to the information you want to delete and tap Delete.

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Typing Emoticons

Emoticons are those cartoon characters that people include in emails and on FaceBook. They are those winking smiley faces and colorful hearts and random, fun images of things in our lives.

Built into the Mac since Lion, you can easily add these characters.

1. Under the Apple menu, choose System Preferences

2. Click on the Keyboard icon

3. Check the box to Show Keyboard and Character Viewers in menu

4. A new icon appears in the top right menu bar, next to the clock

5. Click it to show the Character Viewer

6. The left column shows the different collections of symbols, shapes and arrows that have always been available on the Mac

7. Click Emoji to access the cartoon emoticons

8. Click on People, Nature, Objects, Places and Symbols to see the choices

9. To use one simply drag it to where you are typing

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Typing Emoticons

Emoticons are those cartoon characters that people include in emails and on FaceBook posts. They are winking smiley faces and colorful hearts and random, fun images of things in our lives.

To set up access to the Emoji keyboard:

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Scroll down and tap Keyboard

4. Tap Add New Keyboard

5. Find and tap Emoji

6. Get out of Settings

To use the Emoji keyboard when typing:

1. In email or on FaceBook, when you have the regular keyboard showing, tap the Globe icon and it will switch to the Emoji keyobard

2. Tap the various symbols to choose between categories

3. Tap the Globe again to return to the regular keyboard

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Ram vs. Hard Drive Storage: What’s The Difference?

Computer memory is RAM. It’s like your physical desk. How much RAM you have determines how many apps you can have open at one time and work with efficiently.

If your computer is slow, or freezing, or you get the spinning ball, you need more working space–you need to install more RAM.

Hard drive storage space is like your closet. You can store a whole lot more in your closet than would ever fit on your desk to work with at any given time.

Uninstalling Apps, deleting photos and documents creates more storage space. Buying and installing RAM will create more efficient working space.

To find out how much RAM and hard drive storage your Mac has:

Under the Apple menu, choose About This Mac

The RAM amount, measured in GB, is listed in this first window.

To see how much hard drive storage you have, click More Info

If you are running Lion or Mountain Lion, click on the Storage tab across the top and a graphic will appear, showing you how much you are using and how much is left.

If you are running an earlier version of the OS, in the left column of the More Info window, scroll down and click on Serial ATA and click on the hard drive listed for the information.

In my opinion, you need a minimum of 4GB if you are running Lion or Mountain Lion. Anything less than that, and things may run slow, or freeze.

Contact Apple or a third party dealer (MacMall, MacMemory) to find out how much more you can add to your particular Mac.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Free Apps

The cool, crisp weather of autumn is an invitation to get outdoors and spend some time in nature. This month’s free apps can enhance your experience.

LEAFSNAP

Have you ever found a leaf and wondered what kind it was? This virtual field guide lets you take a picture of the leaf, then matches it to the correct leaf in the apps database.

iBIRD LITE GUIDE TO BIRDS

This intro app is a pared down version of iBird, one of the most popular bird identifying apps. iBird Lite includes 31 species of birds, including search capabilities and bird songs.

RELAXING SOUNDS OF NATURE LITE

If you can’t get outdoors, you can bring the sounds of nature indoors with this free app. With 22 different nature sounds, you can create your own combination of sounds to relax, reduce stress and feel better.
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Reminders in Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion is packed with so many new features, like Smart Browsing in Safari, VIPs in Mail and Reminders.

Reminders, like Notes, sync between your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Unlike Notes, you can set an alert by date, time, even location in the Reminders App.

I’ve just added a whole new course to The Virtual Classroom so members can learn all about these great new features.

Click here to watch a free video from the Virtual Classroom that will show you how to use the new Reminders feature.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Quick Scroll To The Top

When you reach the bottom of an article, an email, or your Facebook posts, instead of scrolling all the way back to the top, just tap in the very top black horizontal menu space where the time and battery are displayed and you’ll zip right up to the top of the screen.

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Turn Off Facebook Notifications

Do you get an email every time something is posted or commented on in FaceBook? This can make for a very full and overwhelming Inbox.

Here’s how to turn them off:

1. In FaceBook, click on the down triangle in the top right next to HOME

2. Choose Account Settings

3. In the left column, choose Notifications

4. Anywhere you see an icon of an envelope, it means you are asking to receive an email notification

5. Click Edit

6. Click on the envelope to remove all checkmarks

7. Do this with each category

8. Now breathe….

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Editing Text

Instead of deleting and retyping, you can edit text, just like you do on your Mac.

1. Tap and hold your finger near the text you want to edit. An onscreen magnifying glass appears, showing you where the cursor is positioned

2. Drag the cursor to the desired point

3. Now you can type, delete, and edit your text

Selecting Text to Copy and Paste

1. Use the same technique for positioning the cursor, and this time, tap and release, revealing choices to Select, Select All, etc

2. To select only some text, drag the corner grab points to surround the text you want to work with

3. Tap the now selected text to choose to cut or copy

4. To put the text someplace else, tap where you want to put it and choose Paste

Shortcuts:

To select a single word, double-tap it

To select a paragraph, swipe across the paragraph with two fingers

or

quadruple-tap the paragraph

or

pinch/pull on the corner handles with two fingers to change the range of text

Undo the Last Thing Your Did

To undo the last thing you typed or edited, shake the iPad and then click Undo

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Make an Email Really Stand Out

The Flag feature of Apple Mail is great for marking important emails. And you can quickly find any flagged emails quickly with the built-in Search tool.But sometimes an email is REALLY important and you want it to really stand out in the long list of messages in your Inbox. So why not make it a color?

1. Click once on the email

2. From the Format menu, choose Show Colors

3. Choose a color. You can change how you see the different color choices by clicking on the icons at the top of the window. The icon on the far right will show a simple crayon box for simplicity.

4. Close the color window and the email will now be highlighted in that color.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Inserting a Picture in Mail

The new iOS6 is filled with great new features, including the ability to now add a photo into an email directly in Mail.

1. Create a new mail message

2. When you’re ready to insert a photo tap and hold in the message area

3. Choose Insert Photo or Video

4. Choose where the picture is (Camera Roll, Photo Library, an album, etc.)

5. Choose the photo

6. Tap USE

To send several photos at once, either repeat the above steps for each photo or:

1. Open the Photos app

2. Tap Camera Roll or Photo Library, depending on where the photos are

3. Tap Edit

4. Select the photos you want to email

5. Tap Share

6. Tap Mail

If Mail is not an option, you have too many photos selected. So cancel and unselect several photos then try again.

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Setting Margins in Microsoft Word

Many of my clients have been using Microsoft Word for years, yet they admit they don’t know how to properly set margins.

It’s NOT by sliding the triangles on the ruler!

Here’s a free video lesson that will show you how easy it is to properly change your margins.

This tip is just one of the many things you can learn in the newest course in Mac to School’s Virtual Classroom, Tips for Microsoft Word. To gain access to the entire course and all of the other great video lessons, join the classroom!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Maps vs. Google Maps in iOS6

It’s true. The new Maps app in iOS6 DOES include turn by turn directions but it does NOT include mass transit or walking directions. BUT you can still use Google maps!

1. Open Safari

2. Go to maps.google.com

3. Tap the Share button and choose to save it as an icon to your home page

Have Your Mac Read To You!

Did you know that you can have your computer read to you? The Speech commands are built into several Apple products and are really easy to use. Thanks, Sheila Cohn for sharing this great tip!

Try this:

Highlight this paragraph
Click on the Edit menu
Choose Speech and
Follow the triangle to the right to choose Start Speaking

To turn it off:

From the Edit menu choose Stop speaking

This works in Safari, too:

Find an article
Click on READER in the top right of the address bar so that the text is in its own window (A cool tip in itself!)
Click on the Edit menu
Choose Speech and
Follow the triangle to the right to choose Start Speaking
If you hadn’t first highlighted a particular section it will begin reading from the beginning

You can also change the voice and tone of the speaker:

Under the Apple menu choose System Preferences
Click on the Speech icon
Click on the Text to Speech tab
Next to System Voice, choose a name and click Play

Additional Speech and Voice Over features can be found under the Universal Access icon in System Preferences.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month

Quick Scroll to the Top

When you reach the bottom of an article, or an email or the news feed in FaceBook, instead of scrolling all the way back to the top:

Just double tap in the very top black horizontal menu space where the time and battery are displayed and you’ll zip right up to the top of the screen.

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Watching .WMV Files in Mail with Lion

1. Click here to download the VLC player.

2. Click on the top VLC choice for 32/64 bit.

3. It will download and appear wherever you have designated downloaded files to go. If it’s not on the Desktop, it’s probably in the Downloads folder.

4. To find the Downloads folder, from the Finder screen, click on the GO menu at the top.

5. Click on Downloads and find the file titled “VLC-1.1.12.dmg”.

6. Double click on the file and it will open.

7. Drag the icon of the orange cone on top of the Applications folder in that window and it will copy it.

8. When it’s done, close the window.

9. Trash the two VLC files that are still in the Downloads folder.

10. Now open an email that has a .wmv that you previously couldn’t open and it will work!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month

Deleting Emails

While there is still no way to Select All and Delete, there are two different ways to delete emails.

Option 1:

1. In the Inbox, tap Edit
2. Tap the circle next to each email you want to delete
3. Tap Delete

Option 2:

1. Slide across the right side of the email when it’s listed in the Inbox
2. Delete will appear as a choice

Try both options and see which one works better for you.

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Quick Look

Often, you’ll have documents in a folder or on your Desktop and you have no idea what they are. Instead of wasting the time to open each item, use the Mac’s Quick Look feature to get a Quick Look.

Click here for a short video to show you how it works.

FOR MORE GREAT VIDEO TIPS, check out the videos in The Virtual Classroom.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month

Add a Web Page to Your Home Screen

If you have a few favorite websites that you always go to on Safari, why not make them be icons on your home page for faster, easier access?

1. Open Safari
2. Go to the desired website
3. Click the “+” to Add a Bookmark but instead of choosing Add a Bookmark
4. Tap Add to Home Screen
5. Now that site is just a tap away.

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Safari: Zooming In and Out

Sometimes things online are just too small. Safari has an easy way to ZOOM in to see more detail.

There are several ways to zoom:

~ From the View menu, choose ZOOM IN

~ You can also hold down the Command key and type a “+”

~ You can even add an icon to the Toolbar for zooming

Under the View menu, choose Customize Toolbar.

Drag the big A little A tool into the toolbar.

Now zooming is click a click away.

Try it with this artist’s work that is more than just painting with tiny bits of paper. Look at the textures, the shadows, the kinds of papers the artist used. They are stunning.

FOR MORE GREAT SAFARI TIPS, check out the videos in The Virtual Classroom.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month

Portrait? Landscape? Lock It In Place

(This week’s tip works on the iPad 2 and the new iPad.)

You know that you can turn the screen sideways and the contents of the window automatically switches. Some folks like this feature, others find it annoying.

You can lock the screen so that it stays in one orientation.

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Scroll down to below Restrictions to “Use Side Switch to:

4. and choose Lock Rotation

5. Get out of Settings by tapping the Home button

6. Tilt the screen so it’s the orientation you want

7. Slide the switch on the right side to the locked position so that you see orange

The iPad will still automatically adjust to tall if the app doesn’t work in the wide mode.

iPhoto: Cropping Pictures for Printing

If you plan to print or order prints of your favorite photos, remember to first crop them to the desired size. Otherwise, the photo lab will crop them for you and you may be disappointed with the results.

To crop a picture in iPhoto:

1. In iPhoto, click once on the photo and click Edit from the toolbar at the bottom

2. Click on the crop tool

3. From the pull-down list of numbers, choose the size of the print you will be ordering. A rectangular box will appear on the photo.

4. Drag the corners to resize the rectangle to include what you want in the photo. You’ll notice that if you make it narrower it will also make it shorter–it is constraining the photo to the proportions of the size you selected.

5. You can reposition the rectangle by dragging in the middle of the rectangle.

6. You can also change it from a landscape to a portrait by choosing again from the size list–the last choices in the menu give you the option to make it tall (portrait) or wide (landscape).

7. When you have the desired area selected, click Done.

Now you have a proper photo of the desired size.

If you are ordering several different sizes of the same photo, duplicate the photo first (photos menu, choose duplicate) and crop each one to the desired size.

FOR MORE GREAT iPHOTO TIPS, check out the videos in The Virtual Classroom at http://www.mac2school.com/virtual-classroom-library/

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month

Turning To-Do’s Into Ta Dones

The free App, I DONE THIS gets five stars when it comes to writing stuff down and staying motivated, whatever you do. You just tap the icon of the cute dog face and write about everything you got done that day.

It’s not another TO DO list that might leave you feeling overwhelmed or unaccomplished. I DONE THIS is all about recognizing what you HAVE done. You can scroll through all of the entries and feel a sense of big accomplishment.

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Quicken vs Quicken Essentials

You’ve probably heard that Intuit finally released a version of Quicken that will work with Lion. Even if you’ve already converted to Quicken Essentials, you can still switch back to the new Quicken.

Why would you want to?

~ Quicken 2007 has much more complete reporting capabilities.

~ Quicken 2007 includes automatic backups of your important data.

~ Quicken 2007 allows you to pay your bills right from within the program.

~ Quicken 2007 tracks investments and securities.

And more.

Here’s the link to download the newest Lion compatible version.

http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance-software/quicken-2007-osx-lion.jsp

Be sure to read the conversion information too. Or call me and I’ll help you.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month

Emailing More Than One Photo At a Time

To send more than one picture in an email:

1. Tap Photos

2. Don’t select a picture! Instead, tap the Share icon, the rectangle with the arrow in the top right corner

3. Now select your photos

4. Tap Share

5. Choose Email

You can also use this technique to Delete several photos at a time.

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Scroll Bar Secrets

The scroll bar, on the right side of every window, allows you to move up and down the window to see the contents.
Dragging the scroll bar moves you fast, sometimes too fast. But Dragging the scroll button is the quickest way to go all the way to the top or bottom of a window.

Clicking the up and down arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar will move you a line at a time. This is great if you are reading a document line by line or looking at individual photos.

In the System Preferences, under Appearance, you can set the Scroll Bar to either jump to the next page or to the spot that’s clicked.

This is handy when you are scanning a document or wanting to quickly navigate through a section of your photos.

BONUS: In Safari, pressing the Space Bar scrolls the window a screen at a time.

iPad and iPhone App of the Month

Paper Karma: Get a handle on Junk Mail

Paper Karma is a free app that helps eliminate all of the junk mail and catalogs that fill up your mailbox. Just snap a photo of the label on any piece of junkmail and send it to the folks at Paper Karma and your name will be removed from that mailing list.

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Updates! Updates! Updates!

It is so important to keep current with all of your computer software updates. Updates fix bugs, increase security and make things work better.

Updates for all Apple software will come through Software update, under the Apple menu.

In addition, if you have purchased software from the APP Store, you will receive notification there as well.

If you see a red number on the App store icon in the Dock, that means that there is an update waiting for you to install.

Click to open the App Store, then click on Updates in the top right of the menu bar.

For Microsoft Office, Quicken, QuickBooks, Firefox and all non-Apple products, you need to check within each of these Apps for an update. Look under the Help menu for a link to Check for Updates.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month

Printing

Yes, of course you can print from your iPad and iPhone. You just need a wireless printer that is Airprint compatible.

For a complete list of printers that are Airprint compatible, click here.

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Tips and Secrets for Addressing Emails

Check out this free video that shows you secrets for addressing emails, clearing out incorrect or old addresses and so much more!

If you like this video, you’ll love the upcoming online class TAME YOUR EMAIL.
Click here for details.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month

Four Ways to Conserve Your Battery

Under Settings:

1. Turn off Bluetooth if you are not connected to a wireless keyboard

2. Under General, choose Restrictions, turn off Ping, Apple’s social networking music service

3. Under the iPod setting, turn off the EQ

4. Under Location Services, wisely choose which Apps REALLY need to know where you are